So I was watching TV last week and I saw a commercial that showed a man with a baby and the baby was reading! Yes, reading from flashcards, big words too,…a little baby…reading! As the baby continued to read the words on the flashcards, I watched with wonderment and awe and thought to myself…………..

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

When are we going to stop pushing our children to stop being children? Failing children in kindergarten was bad enough but now we have to teach our children to read at 6 months? Do they really think that a child that can read at 6 months is going to be any further ahead than the child who learns to read in Kindergarten? The bottom line is…by the end of 2nd grade, kids who did learn early and kids who did not are usually at the same level.

Both my children learned to read between the ages of 4 and 5 and they both have an extremely high lexile reading levels. They both love to read and and they both have an extensive vocabulary. Perhaps I am nuts but when my kids were babies, they rolled on the floor and laughed and gurgled

Go online and Google daycare centers, try to find one called something like The “let’s just let our children play and have fun ” daycare. You won’t find one. They are all called names that end with “academy” or “college” or they have the term “learning” or “Einstein” in their names. What is that? Are we turning out better scholars by teaching our children at a very early age? or even starting them in infancy? according to a recent Time magazine article, studies show, no we are not. In the latest study on the effects of popular videos such as the “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby” series, researchers find that these products may be doing more harm than good. And they may actually delay language development in toddlers

We are pushing and pushing and pushing because we think that the kids will do better in school. I think we are just robbing them of the most important time in their lives. Leave them alone and allow them to learn the natural way, through sights, sounds, touch, play and human interactions. Sure they have to learn to read and do algebra at some time, but can’t we allow them to be babies and children for as long as possible

Please, let’s just allow an infant to be an infant, to marvel and the sights and sounds, to enjoy this most precious and innocent of times. NOT be teaching them to read Tolstoy’s War and Peace!

What is YOUR opinion on this? Do you believe it is a babies best interest to try to teach them to read before they are even one year old? Do you think that in the long term it makes a difference to that child’s education or learning capabilities?